Wirtz: The enemy is closer than you think

Published 9:00 pm, Tuesday, April 23, 2002

Here was one special interest group bashing the very thing they stand for  the right of Americans to lobby their government. The hypocrisy would not be so great if the professional environmentists were right. But they're not, not by the length of a Chevy Suburban.

The executive directors of the professional environmental groups came out armed with poll after poll purporting that they know what Americans want and that is higher gas mileage for their vehicles, rebuilding in small spaces in inner-cities rather than in suburbia, no more malls, tighter controls on the various contaminants that pollute the air, water and soil. The list went on, and on, and on.

The trouble is, Americans don't buy homes and cars with polls. For that they use checkbooks. And the checks aren't being written for subcompact cars, small homes with little or no yard nor many alternative energy gadgets.

Consider these statistics: According to information on the National Association of Homebuilders Web site, the average size of a one-family home in 1950 was about 1,000 square feet with two bedrooms and one bathroom. Today, that average is 2,265 square feet, with three or more bedrooms, 2 1/2 bathrooms and garages big enough for two or more automobiles. And homes are getting bigger.

Guess what are the largest selling vehicles on the road? Yep, the SUVs, not the hybrids. It's trucks, not subcompacts. And vans, not station wagons.

Recently, the NAB and National Association of Realtors conducted a survey that showed Americans are actually confused about what they want. Perhaps their intentions are good, but the follow through is a bit slow.

For example, lower taxes were important to very important to 55 percent, having a "bigger house" was desired by 47 percent, a "bigger lot" by 45 percent and "less developed area" by 40 percent, all of which use more resources, require more land and more environmental degradation.

These desires were way ahead of "closer to public transportation" (13 percent) and "closer to work" (28 percent), seemingly values that are more environmentally friendly.

And how are these people getting to and from their houses, work and the mall? In vehicles the size of Abrams tanks, that's how. In 2001, SUV sales passed light trucks sales for the first time and the combination of SUV, light trucks and minivans, all of which are exempted from tighter mileage standards for automobiles, outsold the traditional family car.

So the professional environmentalists, instead of bashing corporations for giving Americans what they want, should take a new tack  convince the American public about the need for conservation. Bush, too, could score a lot of environmental points by calling on Americans to change their habits.

That won't happen because in the long run both the professional environmentalists and Bush rely on donations to stay in business, and you won't get money out of people you are accusing of being wasteful.